PITTSBURGH - Anger and despair swept through many parts of America after a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer, for killing Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old.

FERGUSON, Mo. — The choir sang, the preachers shouted and the casket stayed closed. The body was taken to the cemetery, and Michael Brown was laid to rest.
Thus went the most recent enactment of "the ritual" — the script of death, outrage, spin and mourning that America follows when an unarmed black male is killed by police.

Something is happening just beneath the fight over the name of a certain Washington, D.C., pro football team: America is working through the process of determining what is - or is not - racially offensive.

Five decades and $1 billion after an infamous racial episode made Little Rock, Ark., a national symbol of school segregation, the legal fight to ensure that all of its children receive equal access to education is almost over.

For two thousand years, he has been worshipped and adored. Multitudes look to him each day. And yet nobody really knows the face of Jesus. That has not stopped humanity's imagination, or its yearning to draw Jesus as close as possible.

The passing of Nelson Mandela leaves a waning number of global figures representing freedom and resilience against oppression - and a changing world that makes it harder for anyone to approach Mandela's iconic power.